Thursday, December 10, 2015

Do Novelists Have to Be Politically Correct?

The
recent flap over a romance novel titled For Such a Time whose plot
features a concentration camp inmate falling in love with her Nazi captor has
aroused the wrath of various critics and readers on grounds that it is too
discomfiting and disturbing to have been published.

While
I can understand why some readers are offended by the premise, it smacks of
political correctness gone awry. The problem is that it has invaded an art form
that can be dangerously compromised by the basic tenets of political
correctness, which posits that any expression or attitude that discomfits
others must be excised from all forms of public communication.

In
its basic concept, what makes the novel unique is that it is a fictional
portrayal in which the author not only relates the actions but imagines the
thoughts of his or her characters. As they say, actions speak louder than words
but actions in real life do not always mirror one's true thoughts and
motivations. Those of us who assiduously follow the oral antics of politicians
need no further explanation.

Shakespeare,
as always, offers an exception to the rule, since the characters in his plays
often reveal their inner thoughts through monologues, of which the
unforgettable speech of the conflicted Hamlet will attest.

A
serious novelist, above all, seeks truth and understands that an action by a
character is often contrived to pursue a contrary attitude or motive. Those
characters conceived in the author's imagination often are portrayed to act
socially and morally acceptable to people with whom they interact. As in real
life many people hide counter thoughts and judgments that can insult, do
emotional harm, display bias, prejudice and outright hatred all the while
pursuing a conspiratorial agenda. Of course, one should strive to apply inner
discipline to speech that reaches an unacceptable level of vilification or
danger to others.

The
concept of free speech has a long history of debate attempting to define its
boundaries constitutionally, psychologically and emotionally - there may never
be a definition that satisfies everyone but it is the job of the serious
novelist and the metric of his or her talent to look beyond the surface of speech
and public appearance and delve deeply into a character's mind in order to
reveal the true motives that lie behind the façade. If I had been bogged down
by worries of what others thought of my work in terms of whether or not
something was "politically correct," my creativity would have been
utterly stifled. In my forthcoming novel Torture Man, I explore
controversial themes in all of their complexities.

At
times the character, as in the case of the romance novel cited earlier, is
revealed as knowing full well that he or she is acting in a way counter to the
overwhelming opinion of others, but he or she cannot discipline powerful inner
yearnings and passions to conform to such judgments. In the case of love, for
example, no one has yet defined the motivation of how and where such feelings
come from.

How
does an inmate of a concentration camp fall passionately in love with a person
who represents everything that she opposes, whose commitment is to the very
cause of her demise?

Argument
and debate, however heated, outrageous, offensive, hurtful and profane is the
price we pay for the privilege of speaking freely. We are currently going
through a period where speech is being severely restricted and goal posts of
tolerance are moving closer to allegedly protect people from discomfort of any
kind.

Yes,
words matter and that old nursery rhyme of "sticks and stones will break
my bones but words will never hurt me" seems less applicable to contemporary
life as it once was when the tonal level was more a local whisper than a global
scream.

In
his or her story role, the character may or may not act or use language in what
seems like a politically correct way, but it is the duty of the novelist to expose
the raw complexity of his or her character's true thoughts which are often far
off the politically correct charts.

Warren Adler is best known for The War of the Roses, his
masterpiece fictionalization of a macabre divorce turned into the Golden Globe
and BAFTA-nominated dark comedy hit starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner
and Danny DeVito. In addition to the success of the stage adaption of his
iconic novel on the perils of divorce, Adler has optioned and sold film rights
to more than a dozen of his novels and short stories to Hollywood and major
television networks. Warren Adler has just launched Writers of the World,
an online community for writers to share their stories about why they began
writing. Warren Adler's latest novel, Torture Man, which
explores Jihadist terrorism, is available now. His Film/TV projects
currently in development include the Hollywood sequel to The War of the
Roses - The Children of the Roses, along
with other projects including Capitol Crimes, a television
series based on Warren Adler’s Fiona Fitzgerald mystery novels, as well as a
feature film based on Warren Adler and James Humes’ WWII thriller, Target
Churchill, in association with Myles Nestel and Lisa Wilson of The Solution
Entertainment Group. Explore more at www.warrenadler.com and connect with
him on Facebook
and Twitter.

4 comments:

Warren, Thank you for expounding on this topic. It has been a concern for me as a new writer. My first book is non-fiction. However, it covers some topics that ruffle feathers. The fiction book I am working on will also ruffle a few feathers. My desire it to be true to the characters and the stories. I will put a book down or shut a movie off if the characters are superficial; not true to life. I am headed to my library to get the Fiona Fitzgerald novels. They are next on my reading list.

That phrase sets my teeth on edge. Everyone suddenly wears their feelings on the outside, and oh my! Horrible is one should have their's rubbed the wrong way. Good gravy! What happened to being tough? Those people who are politically correct inclined would never make it as a novelist!!